Demonstrators hold signs and listen to city leaders and community members speak Sunday at San Jose City Hall
More than 500 people gathered in front of San Jose City Hall in solidarity against recent racially-driven hate in the Bay Area directed toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
Sunday’s rally was organized by attorney at law Adam Juratovac after multiple crimes against the Asian community including the March 16 shooting in Georgia that claimed the lives of eight people, six of whom were Asian American women, according to a March 19 USA Today article.
Juratovac is a California Employment Law Attorney representing employees and small businesses in the Bay Area, according to his website. He is also president of the Santa Clara County Bar Association Barristers and a member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, according to the rally’s speakers list.
At the rally drivers in passing cars honked in support of the protestors and the usual downtown ambience was barely audible as voices led by Juratovac chanted “one beat, one heart.”
Juratovac said he didn’t expect as large of a turnout for the rally when he started planning.
“The initial goals of this rally was to bring the community together, because we’re a community that’s hurting right now,” Juratovac said in an interview after the rally. “We’re a community that is really tired of what’s been happening to our elders and how we’ve been treated, being treated, not only in the past year but throughout our lives.”
Cupertino resident Steffi Lau said the murders made her re-evaluate past racist comments and “jokes” she’s heard and the rally encouraged her to take action for herself and the community.
Lau said microaggressions and racist comments are something many members of the AAPI community are taught to shrug off, which she said can lead to tragedies.
“I think now it’s time to convert that hurt into anger and action because clearly that’s led to this,” Lau said.
Yvonne Kwan, an assistant professor of Asian American studies at San Jose State, said many people spoke out against hate toward the AAPI community before recent incidents and needed action to be taken then from officials in power.
“[A theme] in the rally was talking about no longer being silent, but not all of us have been silent,” Kwan said in a Zoom interview the morning after the rally. “We have been calling out, we have been identifying these challenges and struggles within our university community too, but again, who’s listening and who is not?”
Kwan also said she was forwarded a July 2020 email from SJSU history professor Jonathan Roth in a Google faculty forum. Roth wrote “I do not consider Asian Americans ‘People of Color. ’ From a power point of view they are white.”
Victoria Chon, a teacher with the Fremont Unified School District and Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee, said it’s important for children in the AAPI community to engage in conversations about racism.
“The children are going to be the leaders that change these thoughts, but if we don’t have a conversation with them, they are going to grow up without that knowledge [from hard conversations],” Chon said during the rally. “They’re going to go off without the courage to speak up and to shout out when these injustices are happening.”
Tonya Ali, who chose to go by her maiden name for privacy reasons, said while she was encouraged to see the community come together, the tragedy that led to the rally was unfortunate.
“We shouldn’t just show up for marginalized communities when something tragic happens,” Ali said. “Especially the Asian American community has been recording a 1900% increase in hate crime since coronavirus started and so it’s just unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to get here.”